Karima Adebibe

“I've always been quite athletic, but I've had to step it up because the outfit is very… unforgiving. The shorts are very short, and the latex is very tight.” -Karima Adebibe

Karima was a relative unknown until recently. The 20-year-old British babe will be the seventh model to portray Lara Croft in the successful Tomb Raider video-game series.

"This is an incredible opportunity for me and one which I plan to grasp with both hands," she says. "It's a huge challenge to follow in the footsteps of people like Nell McAndrew and Angelina Jolie, but life is all about challenges and this is perhaps the biggest one for a model and actress."

SEX APPEAL

As the next Lara Croft, everything about Karima’s appearance has been designed to be sexy: From her form-fitting "Daisy Dukes" to her spectacular gravity-defying bosom. “Lara Croft is one of the sexiest women on the planet, so to be cast as her is such a huge compliment,” she says. “It is so empowering and exciting to realize you are about to become a fantasy figure.”

She’s amazing on her own -- as she has proved in a variety of sizzling pictorials. Karima’s shapely figure isn’t strictly a matter of genetics: “I'm always out and about playing football or tennis,” she says. “I go to the gym a lot, I like to run in the park, I like to box, and I like to do yoga.”

SUCCESS

A newcomer to the industry, Karima’s professional accomplishments are admittedly modest. Prior to being selected as the next Lara Croft, the busty Londoner played the sacrificial maiden in AVP: Alien Vs. Predator (2004). She has since appeared in a sultry spread in FHM and in an episode of the Sci-Fi show, HypaSpace (2006).

Karima Adebibe Biography

Born in 1985, it has taken 20 years for the full impact of Karima’s birth to come to fruition. She was born in London’s East End and raised in her family’s ancestral homeland of Morocco until she was 7 years old, at which time she and her doting parents returned to London’s Bethnal Green.

karima auditions for the role of lara croft

A natural -- and naturally busty -- beauty, Karima grew up with a desire to be in front of the camera. However, despite some work and a bit part in AVP: Alien Vs. Predator (2004), Karima’s career was going nowhere fast. That’s when she heard that Eidos Interactive, the makers of Tomb Raider, was looking for a new model to portray the cyberbabe Lara Croft.

“I was about to quit modeling,” she admits. “Going to all the castings was getting a bit tiresome and I wanted to do photography. Then this happened. It must have been a sign to stick with it.”

Despite a successful first audition, Karima didn’t think she had a shot at the coveted role. “I don't know if it was a lack of confidence on my part, but when I saw the competition I was up against, I thought the girls were fantastic, and were in much better shape than I was,” she recalls. “I did something really stupid during the casting. They asked me if I had seen the other girls, and I said, 'Oh yeah, wait 'til you see the next two girls, they're so much better than me.'"

Her self-deprecating nature must have worked, because Karima was soon told that she had beaten out thousands of other applicants from around the world to become the next Lara Croft.

karima becomes an overnight sensation

Eidos made the official announcement on February 14th, a date coinciding with Lara Croft’s birthday and the 10th anniversary of the Tomb Raider franchise.

Overnight, Karima went from being a virtual unknown to being one of the most desirable women in the world. “I’ve had the most amazing yet strangest day possible,” she said at the time. “I woke up this morning and I was in five or six newspapers and it’s just so shocking!” Karima’s internet presence also rose considerably, jumping from 236 web-search results on February 13th to 16,300 results just two days later.

karima begins her tour of duty

With great fame comes great responsibility and Karima will now spend the next two years promoting the latest installment of the Tomb Raider video-game franchise with visits to America, Canada and Europe.

She is also currently undergoing an extensive training regime. “I've had to do SAS training, combat training, elocution lessons, deportment, etiquette, media lessons, and I still have firearm training,” she says. “And I have to get my motorcycle license. I actually already started my motorcycle lessons, but they failed me because I crashed into a wall.”